Origin from 1606
Two years after Guru Arjan installed the Adi Granth at Harmandir Sahib in 1604, and sixty nine years before Aurangzeb executed Guru Tegh Bahadur in Delhi in 1675, both already recorded here, the young Sikh community's relationship to worldly power changed at its own center. Guru Arjan, the community's fifth Guru, had himself been executed by Mughal order earlier in 1606, and his eleven year old son and successor, Guru Hargobind, broke with the unarmed, purely devotional model his predecessors had followed. At his installation as the sixth Guru he asked to be girded with two swords rather than one, naming them miri, temporal authority, and piri, spiritual authority, and had a raised platform built directly facing Harmandir Sahib, the Akal Takht, throne of the timeless one, where he heard both religious matters and the community's worldly disputes and grievances. The doctrine of miri piri that Guru Hargobind founded there bound spiritual devotion to armed, organized worldly responsibility as a single Sikh obligation, a fusion that shaped the community's stance toward Mughal authority for the rest of the Guru period and toward political power ever after, including in the community's response, already recorded here, to Aurangzeb's execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur decades later.
Facts
Dates
StatusEstablished marks Guru Hargobind's installation as the sixth Sikh Guru in 1606, at which he adopted the two swords of miri and piri and built the Akal Takht facing Harmandir Sahib, a milestone between Guru Arjan installing the Adi Granth at Harmandir Sahib in 1604, already recorded here, and Aurangzeb executing Guru Tegh Bahadur in Delhi in 1675, also recorded here. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Aurangzeb directly: "in 1604, and sixty nine years before Aurangzeb executed Guru Tegh Bahadur in Delhi in 1675, both already recorded here, the young Sikh community's relationship to worldly power changed at its own..."
Delhi, Cities This source names Delhi directly: "executed Guru Tegh Bahadur in Delhi in 1675, both already recorded here, the young Sikh community's relationship to worldly power changed at its own center."
This source names Guru Arjan directly: "Two years after Guru Arjan installed the Adi Granth at Harmandir Sahib in 1604, and sixty nine years before Aurangzeb executed Guru Tegh Bahadur in Delhi in 1675, both already recorded here, the..."
This source names Guru Hargobind directly: "his eleven year old son and successor, Guru Hargobind, broke with the unarmed, purely devotional model his predecessors had followed."
This source names Guru Tegh Bahadur directly: "nine years before Aurangzeb executed Guru Tegh Bahadur in Delhi in 1675, both already recorded here, the young Sikh community's relationship to worldly power changed at its own center."
This source names The Akal Takht directly: "built directly facing Harmandir Sahib, the Akal Takht, throne of the timeless one, where he heard both religious matters and the community's worldly disputes and grievances."
Occurred In
Spread Event Of
Adds a milestone in Sikhism's relationship to temporal power between Guru Arjan installing the Adi Granth at Harmandir Sahib in 1604 and Aurangzeb executing Guru Tegh Bahadur in Delhi in 1675, both already recorded here: Guru Hargobind's 1606 installation as the sixth Guru, at which he adopted the doctrine of miri and piri and built the Akal Takht at Amritsar.
Sources
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